I'm back at uni having had a week at home eating at a lot of thai restaurants, and damn do I wanna get into cooking thai food. Who has some good beginner recipes? I left my asian vegan kitchen book at home by accident =[Also I'm cooking for one, so I need to be able to cut them down!

I made thai green curry today! I went out and got thai green curry paste (shh, I'm a noob), lemongrass and chillies, added some garlic and made a vegetabley thing with coconut cream ^.^

Make sure you check for shrimp paste! Sounds awesome though! I did a class and bought a book from here:http://www.spirithouse.com.au/shop/booksThe one I have is a spiral-bound exercise book but it looks like they don't sell it on the site anymore. I remember there being an awesome recipe for tofu that had green peppercorns in the paste. I need to whip out that book again and veganise the shiitake out of it.Also: I found this recipe for a vegan fish sauce if you want. I haven't made it yet, if I do I think I will cut it down quite a lot.http://www.grouprecipes.com/49971/vegan ... itute.html

My boyfriend cooked an awesome Thai-style curry tonight. I had him write down the instructions, it's not really a recipe because he does everything pretty much to taste. This is enough for two hungry people, with some leftovers for lunches the next day. He specifies Thai Kitchen because it's readily available here and is vegetarian, but any red curry paste will work as long as it has good flavor.

cut beans in half and everything else into short strips (say 3/8" x 1 1/2" -ish)throw all but mushrooms into a (preheated) pot w/ a Tbsp of oil and cook for a few minutes over high heat, stirring frequentlythrow in the mushrooms and cook another minute while stirring to wilt themremove all into a bowl

Add a second Tbsp of oil to the pot, 6 minced garlic cloves, Thai Kitchen red curry paste (about 2 tsp, or to your preference) and cook over medium heat until garlic is cooked (not burnt) and paste is beginning to brown, then add 1 15oz can coconut milk and about 2 c fake chicken broth.

Now you need to season the curry sauce. The amounts that follow are rough suggestions and depending on your taste or ingredients you may need to use different amounts. You're looking for a good balance between sweet, salty, and sour, with enough spice to make it zippy but not hard to eat:

palm sugar, 1 1/2 Tbsp (or use ordinary white or "raw" sugar, the flavor is pretty similar)red pepper flakes, 1/2 tspjuice of 1 limeveg fish sauce, 1 Tbsp (they say you can substitute light or "thin" soy sauce for this, but it's really not the same at all)salt, if the broth and fish sauce don't make it salty enough

When you get the sauce figured out, throw the veggies back in and cook over medium heat until the veggies are done to your liking (don't overcook). Serve over rice, preferably jasmine rice, and top with chopped cilantro.

_________________"Tact is just not saying true stuff. I'll pass.""You know who doesn't care if you're a fat vegan? The animals." Isa